Suzanne Ryanstrati
Suzanne Ryanstrati holds a Master of Fine Arts in Choreography from the University of Iowa where she managed Dancers in Company, Dancers In Company (the University dance company), and taught department tap and modern dance classes. Her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance degree is from the University of New Mexico where she studied Cunningham, the Bill Evans Technique (Evans Somatic Dance), Laban-Bartineff Movement Analysis, and Flamenco. She founded the dance program at Missouri Western State University, directed the dance program at Avila University, was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Missouri, a Lecturer at Southern Illinois State University, and a presenter in Liturgical dance at the University of Kansas.
At the age of 14, she performed with the Kansas City Tap and Musical Comedy Company and later at Kansas City’s Starlight Theater. At the age of 19, she had her first full-time dance job under Neil Hess, Director of the Lone Star Ballet and Texas Musical Drama. Due to injury and desiring a longer performance career, studied contemporary dance (Limon, Horton, and Evans). Ryanstrati represented the U.S. in the International College Dance Festival in Kobe, Japan, and performed with the Bill Evans Dance Company. She later joined aha! Dance theater, Reach…a movement collective inc. and founded Ryanstrati & Co. Contemporary Dance Ensemble where she set original choreographic works. Her choreography has been performed in Connecticut, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Washington and made her International debut in England (2012 & 2015), France (2015, 2019), Germany (2016, 2019) and Ireland (2016).
Raised in an inner-city church, she was asked to dance during the service as a child. This led to liturgical dance churches across denominations, at women’s retreats, International church conferences, and Christian private schools. Additionally, she was a guest lecturer in liturgical dance at the University of Kansas and St. Paul’s Theological Seminary. She was the founding director of Imago Dei’s dance ensemble, The Potter’s Clay, and choreographed a full-length ballet written by St. Hildegard von Bingen, Ordo Virtutum, conducted by Dr. Christopher Krampe.